With respect to the toy industry, a variety of interconnecting toys are known. Historically known as construction toys, these types of toys appeared as early as the 1860's when Ellis, Britton, and Eaton of Springfield, Vermont manufactured hardwood logs with simple locking devices. Charles Crandall of Brooklyn, N.Y. developed a system of tongue and grooved building blocks in the mid 1800's. In 19th century England, Burlington Building Blocks were developed which consisted of hardwood slats with small holes drilled through to be fastened together by pegs. In 1913, A. C. Gilbert, a United States manufacturer, created Erector, "The Master Builder Set." These sets were advertised as the only construction toy with girders like real structural steel. Also in 1913, Chad Valley of Birmingham, England offered a construction set which consisted of a large assortment of printed card sections of various shapes and sizes, with clips for fixing them together.
In 1918, Lott's of Waterford, England offered thin rectangular blocks believed to have been first made from ground-down Italian marble. Some sets consisted of embossed bricks, arch pieces, mullioned window pieces, cathedral construction pieces, and Tudor and cottage style pieces. In the 1920's, Gibruder Bind of Nuremburg, Germany produced the Bing Structator--advertised as the "up-to-date" construction toy. Its parts consisted of aluminum sections. Adolph Schuhmann of Nuremburg, Germany produced metal building bricks during the early 20th century under the name COMBINATOR. Similar to the basic concept employed by A. C. Gilbert was the Meccano construction set produced at Binns Road, Liverpool, England. This set also employed metal strips, but which were drilled with holes equal in circumference at half-inch intervals.
More modern toys which are still in use today were created by Gottfried Christianson of Denmark around the 1920's under the name Lego. These toy building blocks were formed from plastic. Additionllly, Tinkertoy sets were first sold in 1914, and consisted of various wooden parts, thin in circumference, which were designed to be inserted into and interconnected with barrel-shaped wooden pieces to form various shapes.
Mr. Magnet is also a toy of relatively recent manufacture and consists of various-sized magnetized metal pieces, which were designed to be built upon a magnetic pad. The pieces were kept in place by the strength of the magnetic field between the pad and the pieces. The toy is believed to have been manufactured by Ohio Art.
In the last several years, Ohio Art has created yet another interconnecting toy, Zaks, which is composed of a soft, pliable plastic compound. The toy resembles a waffle in appearance, and is designed to have the edges of its various parts connected together. The toy has the further feature of being moveable at hinged junctions.
As can be readily seen from this brief history, the general educational experiences provided by these interconnecting toys are somewhat limited.